While any air crash makes many travelers nervous, the good new is that flying is actually quite safe—and that last year was the second-safest in airline history.
The Aviation Safety Network, which maintains records on all air travel incidents, logged 325 deaths in 19 accidents, down from 560 in 2015. 2013 was the best year on record. with about one death per 11,000,000 passengers, only slightly better than this year's record.
These figures can actually be misleading, since they don't separate the risk into categories. 2014, for instance had a much worse record, as did 2015. But in both years, the majority of deaths did not come from normal airline operations. Most of 2014's came from the shooting down of one Malaysia Air flight and the mysterious disappearance of another; in 2015 we had the Germanwings flight intentionally crashed by a pilot and the bombing of a Metrojet plane.
The years before 2000 saw much higher rates of creashes and fatalities; the worst year was 1972, which saw 72 crashes and over 2300 deaths, and that with far fewer people flying than today. For more stats from The Guardian (UK) click HERE
Above: Air safety demonstration on Aeroflot (Photo: Superjet International)
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